Chapter5

#Chapter5

The third man was nothing at all like the others. He was sitting on a long, leather couch that slid beneath the window. The other brother was standing to his right, one of his hands resting on top of the multicolored design that was his hair.

/"Do not speak to me, human scum—/"

/"Enough!/" Slamming his fist down on the desk with enough force to uproot the stack of papers on them, sending them scattering across the spacious floor like an avalanche, the word of the Alpha once again became law, drilling them into silence. /"Mac, I warned you. Outside. Now. Eric, disrespect your brother's mate again, and you will regret it. I'm supposed to be raising leaders here, and yet you're acting like petulant fucking children!'

/"Aww, Vic,/" Mac whined. /"I don't wanna go. Can I stay? I'll hide behind Remy and you won't even know I'm—/"

/"Out!/" With a sharp flick of his arm, an index finger formed a point, jerking to the doorway Eric was still blocking.

Dark and Terrifying's shoulder jammed into Mac's as he sulked out the room. Remy growled, a harsh sound. Eric smirked, but it fell blank beneath his father's disapproval.

/"Mac was right about one thing,/" the Alpha said, yanking out the solid chair from behind the desk. It was more like a throne than anything. The back arched up into a sharp point, and so much detail had been put into the carving of it, the backrest a network of branches that connected to the tree in the center, and the armrests flowed out into the howling head of a wolf.

He seated himself in it gracefully. For a man so large, he moved with surprising delicacy, like smoke across water.

/"That's got to be a first,/" Eric mumbled.

/"Don't call him a nihil. Your mother raised you better than to speak with such slander./"

So it was a bad word. Aiden had figured that much already. The tone in which Tall and Terrifying had delivered it left little to the imagination. Even still, the conformation had his chest constricting. His hands wrapped around one another. They squeezed tightly, and he desperately tried to imagine that his other hand belonged to somebody else. Somebody who cared about him. Somebody who was supporting him through it.

Once upon a time, Marcus would have fit the bill, but now, being there alone was better than standing there with him.

/"You should have left the boy where he was, Eric. You've now put me in a very difficult position./"

/"How?/" Eric sneered. /"Just kill it. It's a half-breed. You know full well that's what the blood-suckers would do if you handed it back over to them./"

The look the Alpha shot his son was a grave one. /"I'm not going to kill a child in cold blood for nothing more than the misfortune of his birth. They're the monsters, Eric, not us. You will do well to remember that./"

/"Sometimes being a monster is how you win wars,/" Eric snapped back. /"Mercy is weakness. Look where it got the Northridge Alpha– overthrown by a rogue. Our enemies are taking us for fools, and with everything going on, we can't afford to look weak right now./"

/"You're dismissed./"

Eric's mouth popped open. /"Excuse me?/"

Victor Lavoe fixed him with a scathing look, his eyes hard and steely, his mouth pressed into a tight line. /"I allow you boys to listen in on my meetings, to oversee my duties as Alpha, because I hoped it would assist you later on in life. If that is all you have gotten from that luxury, then I have nothing left to teach you. You may leave./"

Opening his mouth as though he was about to say something, Eric snapped it back shut with enough force that the echo of his teeth clenching together broke the silence that followed. He gave a stiff nod, spun on his heels and left.

The Alpha was the more terrifying of the two, but as soon as Eric left, he felt he was able to breathe again. Or something along the lines of it.

/"Are you two able to behave yourselves, or do I need to kick you out too?/"

/"It's not me,/" the man, Remy said with a huff, dropping down on the couch, flicking his feet up. /"It's him. He's getting worse./"

/"I'll deal with him. Clyde, come here./"

The man who'd been nothing but silent throughout the entire encounter pushed off the bookshelf and strode over to his father's desk, coming to a stop at his right shoulder.

/"You're to be Alpha when I step down, so tell me, what problem has your brother caused me?/"

The father and son shared a look. Soft pride stroked the Alpha's expression, and thoughtfulness overturned the son's. He looked the least like his father out of the three brothers. His features were softer. Kinder. He looked gentle, despite the sharp, aristocratic template.

This was him they were talking about. They were discussing him, deciding his fate, and yet there was too much detachment to make it seem real. His mind was still reeling, still struggling to process what had happened, and the trembles that now racked his body were distracting. It was hard to focus on anything beside the way his knees were wobbling, in danger of buckling.

/"We can't send the boy away now,/" Clyde said after a beat. /"He's taken him, which in turn made him our responsibility. If we let him go, he could go right back to Marcus, which would show weakness on our part, and if we send him away, he's as good as dead because it would alert others to his existence, and they'll blood-hunt him./"

/"Very good./" Offering the first genuine smile, the Alpha nodded before turning to his other son. /"Anything to add, Remy?/"

/"He's just a kid, dad,/" Remy sighed. /"Mac's human and we let him stay. It worked. By bringing him back, Eric forced us to choose between killing him— whether at our own hands or indirectly or at our own hands— and keeping him./"

/"Mac's human,/" Victor said softly. /"Which essentially makes him harmless. That, and you claimed him as your mate. To banish him would be to banish you, would it not?/" He lifted a hand, waving towards Aiden. /"He's half vampire– To a lot of people, it would be harbouring an enemy beneath our roof./"

/"So what do we do?/" Clyde asked. /"Do we kill him out of fear of what he could be? You said we don't have to be the savages they see us as./"

/"No,/" Victor agreed. /"But protecting our pack, protecting our family, that must always be our priority. Even at the stake of our souls./"

He was going to die, he realised. He was going to die here in this strange mansion, surrounded by cold, unfamiliar faces. He was going to die, and nobody would care. Something warm his cheek. Tickled as it burnt a path along his cheek. He refused to acknowledge it. The least he could do is try and look brave as he face his demise; he was sure knocking knees and waterlogged eyes was just a picture of bravery.

/"Keeping him would open our door to trouble. It would upset the pack. It would throw the illusion of weakness to our enemies, and it would be a high risk— the boy could be dangerous for all we know./"

/"Could he?/" Clyde's eyes raked him up and down. /"In what world?/"

/"Eyes deceive, my boy,/" Victor said softly. Then, /"What is your name, boy? Have you no defense for yourself?/"

There had been countless times he'd damned himself for his defect. It had set him apart from birth, and turned his entire life into a nightmare. And now, as three sets of eyes landed on him in expectancy, he found himself wishing once again that he could have been a normal boy.